34° I.F.PIDOPTERA. 



and beneath them runs a pale reddish stripe ; undersurface 

 of the jn'ound colour ; ventrial prolo>rs tinged with purplish- 

 brown and having u dark dash down them. 



In some specimens the pink suffusion of the back is con- 

 fined to the five folds between segments four to nine, and is 

 softer in tint, and leaves the middle of these segments of a 

 tender green ; in others the pink may be called purplish ; 

 and in some a darki-r green takes its place. (Rev. J. 

 llellins.) 



September till May — hibernating — and a second genera- 

 tion feeding up rapidly in July and the beginning of August ; 

 on (iiilUnn sfu-ntilc, G, jmhcifn, and doubtless other species of 

 bedstraw ; also in confinement it has lieen known to ear 

 Cleinafi^. Hofmann gives as a food-plant Menyanthes trifoliata. 



Pui'A short, cylindrical, the eyes prominent, the abdomen 

 short ; the tail covered with the cast larva-skin ; the skin 

 polished; the back dark brown; the wing-cases, antennas 

 and undersurface of abdomen, bronzj'-green. Just under 

 the soil, in a weak cocoon of a few silken threads. (Kev. J. 

 Hellins.) 



The moth hides by day among low-growing herbage close 

 to the ground, and is then very difficult to arouse, or if dis- 

 turbed falls down to the roots of the grass. At early dusk it 

 flies very freely, though gently, and on still warm evenings 

 may be seen before dark, Hitting about in numbers in the 

 wet meadows which lie contiguous to fens, as well as in other 

 marshy sjiots. Occasionally it will come to the sugar used 

 as a bait for Xoctiur ; but it is far more strongly attracted by 

 any light placed rather near to the ground, and will enter an 

 illuminated moth-trap in dozens, if placed in its haunts in a 

 calm dark night. 



It has been met with so near to London as Twickenham, 

 and seems to inhabit suitable spots in all the Southern 

 Counties, from Kent to Cornwall, and to Oxfordshire and 

 Herts; also the Kastern Counties, when' it especially abounds 



